Justice in Indonesia

The Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal for Timor Leste (Indonesia)

The Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal for Timor Leste (the Special Tribunal) was created in Indonesia in order to try persons accused of crimes against humanity committed in East Timor between April and September 1999. The United Nations Commission of Experts responsible for reviewing the prosecution of serious human rights violations committed in Timor Leste in 1999 considered, in its report, that the Indonesian Commission for Human Rights Violations in East Timor (KPP HAM) conducted the investigation phase of the special judicial process in conformity with international standards applicable to judicial inquiries. From a list of some 22 suspects drawn up by the KPP HAM report, the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal issued indictments against 18 persons from the army or the police who exercised direct command in East Timor when the events took place, as well as two civilian government employees and one militia officer. All of the accused, except one, (Eurico Guterres), were either acquitted by the first trial chamber or later, on appeal.

After extensive analysis of the facts, the United Nations Commission of Experts came to the conclusion that the proceedings conducted before the Special Tribunal were clearly not in line with how they should have been. According to the Commission the charges levelled were either too restrictive or badly substantiated and the prosecution witnesses had more or less some kind of ties to the defendants. Furthermore the prosecuting magistrate had not fully taken into account the documentary proof in his possession (including the KPP HAM report and the work of the Serious Crimes Unit) In the final analysis, it became clear that the investigations and prosecutions were being conducted at a point in time when the political will to try those accused was lacking.

Moreover, the members of the Commission pointed out a flagrant incoherence which existed between the verdicts and the findings of the Special Tribunal. Finally, justice has not really been rendered, since those who shoulder the greatest responsibility for the serious crimes committed, were not called to account.

NGO’s, such as Human Rights Watch talk of a “judicial disgrace” concerning this Special Indonesian Tribunal, without hesitating to detract from it any designation of “justice” (Report Justice denied for East Timor) In a similar vein, the joint report by the Open Society Institute and the Coalition for International Justice (Unfulfilled Promises Achieving Justice for Crimes Against Humanity in East Timor, November 2004), qualifies this judicial procedure as a total failure in all respects.

Parallel to the the trials being held in Dili, Indonesia has also set up a Human Rights Tribunal, an ad hoc jurisdiction whose particular brief is to sit in judgement on the atrocities committed in East Timor after the referendum on self determination of August 1999.

This institution has come under harsh criticism from various human rights organisations (cf .press releases of Amnesty International and JSPM).

To follow up on these cases, visit the site of JSPM.